Daily Archives: May 10, 2013

Student presentations — Dos and Don’ts

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Every student at every age should get some exposure to “presenting.” Why? Here are a few reasons:

  • The world outside of school requires one to present themselves, be it for a job interview, to the company president, to clients, to employees, to regulators, to a potential sponsor, to a potential donor, etc. The sooner students get exposed to the various types of presentations: marketing pitches, technical talks, internal corporate presentations, etc. the better the chance they will have of articulating their points.
  • Censorship is when some (authoritative) body suppresses the release of specific communication. When a person is unable to communicate his ideas because of his lack of presentation skills, he may as well consider himself censored! Why should any instructor (not just in Mathematics) allow for her students to meet such a fate? Learning to present is one way of learning to communicate.
  • When students get used to presenting, they get used to listening to / watching others present, which in turn opens them up to another method for knowledge acquisition.
  • Everyone’s a critic. Students have to learn to defend their work against a hostile audience (or what’s often the case one hostile person in the audience) before they enter the “real” world. Otherwise they will get harassed off the podium by the lone naysayer in the audience. See this or this or this.
  • Mistakes! Mistakes are the lifeblood of learning. Have students get up, talk, and screw up. The sooner students get used to making mistakes, the sooner they will learn to explore. The sooner they learn to explore, the sooner they will discover new continents, new planets, new stars, new galaxies, new universes.

Now, for this to be effective in the classroom here are some dos and don’ts. This applies especially for first-timers, but isn’t bad advice for instructors experienced with having student presentations. This isn’t about presentation technique dos and don’ts, but more about what the instructor should do and not do incorporating student presentations. And of course, this list will never be comprehensive.

Do Don’t Why
give students a choice of topics from a list approved by the instructor give students absolute free capacity to choose a topic without approval from the instructor Giving students choice from a finite list of topics will help provide structure and a general sense of organization in terms of content. For example, there is no sense of cohesion if one student is presenting a proof of the Pythagorean theorem while another is presenting a Shakespearean sonnet.
let students present their solutions for homework problems have all students present their solutions for the same problems Variety is the spice of life. If all students present the same problem, this becomes dull.
have open-ended topics of presentation just have presentations revolve around math problems Again, variety is the spice of life. Presenting solutions to problems is good as it develops students’ technical presentation abilities. However, having students present, for example, the life of a mathematician of their choosing gives them experience in presenting about a technical matter in a non-technical way (e.g., “What did Cauchy do?” without getting into the nitty gritty of all his work?).
use presentation topics with which all students are familiar use presentation topics that are not familiar at all to other students Presenting is not just about the presenter, but also about the audience. When the topics are familiar, even vaguely, the audience will be engaged. This will help to a) give the presenter positive reinforcement when she sees that her audience is listening and b) the audience will be listening.
have group presentations let group sizes exceed two or three Large groups will tend to have “dead weight”, while small groups can still maintain a sense of accountability.
provide constructive feedback in the form of a question tease, make fun of, or otherwise joke about the student’s presentation Most students are going to be very nervous about speaking. It is best to always congratulate them and find at least one positive thing to say. One good way to provide feedback about areas of improvement is near the end of the class period. Thus, save about 15 minutes to go over all the presentations given and provide constructive criticism without singling out any particular presentation. Congratulate everyone once again at the end of class. This way, everyone still learns but no one is made to feel like a dunce.
set boundaries on time and content when introducing the exercise set or change boundaries on time and content on or near presentation day While in the “real” world everything can change at the last minute, in a school setting the instructor should keep things organized. Last minute changes will only add stress.
set expectations for the intended audience let the student assume an audience The instructor can open up a new dimension when teaching if he plays with the audience type. For example, he may say that the audience is six-year olds and thus the students will have to find a way to explain possibly complicated material to a six-year old. The audience is pretty much all that matters and students have to know how to get their points across to the audience in front of them.
allow for a variety of presentation styles insist on slideshows (for example) This is about communication and getting the idea across. Let students explore with a variety of presentation methods.
have formal presentations and have students “dress up” overemphasize the formality nor have the first presentation be a formal one Presenting is also about appearance. By having students dress up, they feel important and thus will take more pride in their work. Also, they will have a sense of familiarity with a formal setting when it actually matters (college thesis presentation, doctoral defense, presentation to the company board, etc.).
have informal presentations overemphasize the informality Keeping things light helps students become comfortable with speaking. By taking away the appearance element (to within reason), students can focus on presentation content and methodology (e.g., “Um …”, “Uh …”, “You know …”, “like …”, back to the classroom, looking at the floor, hands in pockets, etc.). Also, students will be more receptive to constructive criticism in an informal environment. The first several presentations should be informal.